Underwater World/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Cassie and Rita A girl, Rita, and another girl, Cassie, are wearing diving gear on a boat. Cassie is holding a letter. RITA: Pfft. Cassie reads from a typed letter. CASSIE: Dear Cassie and Rita, My brother just went scuba diving, but I'm scared to. What's it like underwater? Signed, Jared. CASSIE: Well, Rita is more the scuba expert, but I do know that you have to be at least 12 years old to get certified. If you're not 12 yet, try snorkeling. RITA: Oceans are the largest ecosystem on earth. Seventy percent of the earth's surface is covered with 'em. The oceans connect, and animals can move between them. One species may live in all the world's ocean. An image shows a globe. Pop-up images show a sea animal. RITA: Ready? Rita and Cassie dive into the ocean. CASSIE: The ocean has many different habitats. An image shows the ocean floor. CASSIE: You can find sandy plains, mountains, coral reefs, and deep canyons, as well as open water. An animation reveals these ocean habitats with arrows pointing to the areas Cassie describes. RITA: The waters of the ocean, or Pelagic Habitat, are divided into three zones. The Euphotic Zone, from the surface down to 100 meters or so, gets enough sunlight to support colonies of tiny plants and animals called plankton. They may be microscopic, but they support just about every food chain in the ocean. An image shows the Euphotic Zone and a pop-up image shows different types of plankton. RITA: The Bathyal Zone gets little or no light. There's no sunlight whatsoever in the Abyssal Zone, which can go down to 6,000 meters or more. The pressure down there is enough to turn you into a smooth paste, but there's still life down there. The image shows these two zones. The Bathyal Zone is darker than the Euphotic Zone, and the Abyssal Zone is completely dark. CASSIE: The Benthic Habitat is what scientists call the ocean floor. Rita and Cassie are shown scuba diving near coral reefs on the ocean floor. CASSIE: This covers coral reefs to the continental shelves to underwater mountain ranges to deep ocean trenches. An animation shows these areas in the ocean with arrows pointing to the areas Cassie describes. CASSIE: The deepest trench is the Marianas in the Pacific. It's over 11,000 meters deep, and you could lose the world's tallest mountains inside of it. An animation shows a rock dropped into the Marianas and disappearing in its depth. RITA: All of these zones support different types of sea life. An image shows a large variety of sea animals in the different zones. RITA: They may look like rock, but coral reefs are actually made from the hard skeletons of small animals called coral polyps. An image shows coral polyps. RITA: Coral reefs are home to many underwater animals like eels, anemones, polyps, parrotfish, rockfish, and starfish. An image shows these animals. RITA: Reefs are close to the surface and sunlight penetrates their waters. They're like the rainforests of the sea. An image shows a reef that is visible from the water’s surface. CASSIE: On the ocean floor you'll see sponges, sea mats, and sea squirts, creatures like lobsters and crabs and bottom feeding fish like halibut. An image shows these animals. CASSIE: In the depths of the ocean, it's so dark that no plants can grow and fish have special light-emitting abilities. The angler fish has a lighted rod on its head to attract prey. Freaky. An animation shows an angler fish. RITA: There are also vents down there, cracks on the floor of the Pacific where hot sulfuric gasses gush out into the surrounding waters. An animation shows the cracks and gushing gasses as Rita describes. RITA: Creatures living near these vents absorb the chemicals and convert them into energy. An animation shows a creature absorbing the chemicals. CASSIE: Speaking of creatures, there are more than 21,000 known species of fish in the ocean. An animation shows a large variety of fish with sound waves coming toward them. CASSIE: Fish are classified into two main groups: fish with jaws like tuna and mackerel and sharks, and fish without jaws like hagfish and lampreys. An image shows the fish Cassie describes. RITA: Some fish with jaws have skeletons of cartilage, and others have bony skeletons. An image shows bony and cartilage skeletons. CASSIE: Rita mentioned a food chain, just like the food chains you find on land. An animation shows a large fish eating a small fish. CASSIE: One organism is eaten by another, who is, in turn, eaten by somebody else. And so on. A chart shows that plankton are eaten by little fish, who are then eaten by big fish, who are then eaten by really big fish. Rita and Cassie observe a shark swim past them. CASSIE: Yeah, this is one chain I do not want to be a part of.Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Science Transcripts